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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dungeonosophy" data-source="post: 5909136" data-attributes="member: 6688049">Of course the D&D Halfling originally came from the Middle-earth Hobbit. Yet the D&D Halfling has developed its own qualities which diverge from the Tolkienian roots. This is not a bad thing. The D&D Worlds are not Middle-earth. Gygax only incorporated a selection of Tolkienian Hobbit traits to make the D&D Halfling. It's not like he did a thorough textual study of the Hobbit racial abilities. Nor should he have. Like all of D&D's literary sources, the Middle-earth Halfling was re-rendered and depicted through the framework of D&D rules and D&D style. Then the D&D Halfling developed its own self-referential lore, through Ed Greenwood's The Five Shires, the development of the Halfling pantheon of deities, the Kender of Dragonlance, the 2e Complete Book of Gnomes and Halflings, Regis Rubblebelly of the Driz'zt stories, the vicious Dark Sun halflings, the 3e revision of the chubby stay-at-home Halfling into the trim, sideburned, vagabond Lightfoot, and so forth. Yet I'd like to offer another look at the racial characteristics of Middle-earth Halfings, as they are presented in the actual texts. I combed through The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, and teased out any mention of Hobbit racial qualities. In this post, I'm not offering any specific suggestions of how these might be embodied as rules; though some are obvious ("Sharp-eyed" and "Quick of Hearing" would likely be represented as racial bonuses to those perception checks). Nor am I suggesting that D&D adopt these abilities wholesale. But these might be something for the 5e design team to consider.   The following is a list of Hobbit qualities that might be represented rules-wise as racial abilities. Seemingly synonymous qualities are grouped together:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">In Touch with Nature; Close Friendship with the Earth</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Skilled in Crafts and Tools</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Quick of Hearing</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Sharp-eyed/Keen-eyed</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Difficult to Daunt</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Difficult to Kill</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Curiously Tough; Tough as Old Tree-Roots; Survive Rough Handling by Grief, Foe, or Weather; Recover Wonderfully from Falls and Bruises</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Free from Ambition</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Free from Greed of Wealth</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Elusiveness; The Art of Disappearing; Hide Easily</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Move Very Quietly</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Doughty at Bay; Amazing and Unexpected Heroism "At a Pinch"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Sure at the Mark (throwing and shooting)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Sense of Direction Underground</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Work Like Bees</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Fund of Wisdom and Wise Sayings</li> </ul>In Touch With Nature; Close Friendship with the Earth: "They are entirely without non-human powers, but are represented as being more in touch with 'nature' (the soil and other living things, plants and animals)"Letter #131"their elusiveness is due solely to a professional skill that heredity and practice, and a close friendship with the earth, have rendered inimitable by bigger and clumsier races. Prologue to the LotRSkilled in Crafts and Tools: "the only craft little practised among them was shoe-making; but they had long and skilful fingers and could make many other useful and comely things." "They do not and did not understand or like machines more complicated than a forge-bellows, a water-mill, or a hand-loom, though they were skilful with tools."Prologue to the LotRQuick of Hearing: "They are quick of hearing"Prologue to the LotR"when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along, making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off."Chapter 1, The HobbitSharp-eyed; Keen-eyed: "They are [...] sharp-eyed"Prologue to the LotR"they were keen-eyed"Prologue to the LotRDifficult to Daunt: "They were, if it came to it, difficult to daunt"Prologue to the LotR["daunt" is the etymologically the same word as "dominate"] "I think it likely that some [hobbits] would resist the Rings far longer than most of the Wise would believe."Gandalf, in The Fellowship of the Ring Difficult to Kill: "They were, if it came to it, difficult [...] to kill"Prologue to the LotRCuriously Tough (Tough as Old Tree-Roots; Survive Rough Handling by Grief, Foe, or Weather; Recover Wonderfully from Falls and Bruises): "ease and peace had left this people still curiously tough. [...] they were, perhaps, so unwearyingly fond of good things not least because they could, when put to it, do without them, and could survive rough handling by grief, foe, or weather in a way that astonished those who did not know them well and looked no further than their bellies and their well-fed faces.Prologue to the LotR "Soft as butter as they can be, and yet sometimes as tough as old tree-roots."Gandalf, in The Fellowship of the Ring "they can [...] recover wonderfully from falls and bruises" Chapter 5, The HobbitFree from Ambition: "They are entirely without non-human powers, but are represented as being [...] abnormally, for humans, free from ambition"Letter #131Free from Greed of Wealth: "They are entirely without non-human powers, but are represented as being [...] abnormally, for humans, free from [...] greed of wealth.Letter #131Elusiveness (The Art of Disappearing Swiftly and Silently; Disappear Quietly and Quickly; Hide Easily): "There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly and quickly when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along"Chapter 1, The Hobbit"they can [...] hide easily"Chapter 5, The Hobbit"though they are inclined to be fat and do not hurry unnecessarily, they are nonetheless nimble and deft in their movements. They possessed from the first the art of disappearing swiftly and silently, when large folk whom they do not wish to meet come blundering by; and this art they have developed until to Men it may seem magical. But Hobbits have never, in fact, studied magic of any kind, and their elusiveness is due solely to a professional skill that heredity and practice, and a close friendship with the earth, have rendered inimitable by bigger and clumsier races."Prologue to the LotRMove Very Quietly: "they can move very quietly"Chapter 5, The Hobbit"though they are inclined to be fat and do not hurry unnecessarily, they are nonetheless nimble and deft in their movements." Prologue to the LotRDoughty at Bay; Amazing and Unexpected Heroism "At a Pinch": "they were doughty at bay, and at need could still handle arms."Prologue to the LotR"They are made [FONT=TimesNewRoman,Italic][FONT=TimesNewRoman,Italic]small [/FONT][/FONT](little more than half human stature, but dwindling as the years pass) partly to exhibit the pettiness of man, plainunimaginative parochial man – though not with either the smallness or the savageness of Swift, and mostly to show up, in creatures of very small physical power, the amazing and unexpected heroism of ordinary men 'at a pinch'. Letter #131Sure at the Mark: (shooting and throwing) "Bilbo was a pretty fair shot with a stone, and it did not take him long to find a nice smooth egg-shaped one that fitted his hand cosily.""As a boy he used to practise throwing stones at things, until rabbits and squirrels, and even birds, got out of his way as quick as lightning if they saw him stoop; and even grownup he had still spent a deal of his time at quoits, dart-throwing, shooting at the wand, bowls, ninepins and other quiet games of the aiming and throwing sort"Chapter 8, The Hobbit"They shot well with the bow, for they were keen-eyed and sure at the mark. Not only with bows and arrows. If any Hobbit stooped for a stone, it was well to get quickly under cover, as all trespassing beasts knew very well."Prologue to the LotRSense of Direction Underground: "Hobbits are not quite like ordinary people; and after all if their holes are nice cheery places and properly aired, quite different from the tunnels of the goblins, still they are more used to tunnelling than we are, and they do not easily lose their sense of direction underground"Chapter 5, The HobbitWork Like Bees: "Hobbits can work like bees when the mood and the need comes on them."The Return of the KingFund of Wisdom and Wise Sayings: "they have a fund of wisdom and wise sayings that men have mostly never heard or have forgotten long ago."Chapter 5, The HobbitI wonder: though D&D Halflings have some of these abilities, should any of the "missing" racial abilities be "returned" to the 5e Halfling? Or, are these best relegated to Middle-earth roleplaying?</blockquote>

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